You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will automatically be added to our player registry (unless you opt not to) and will be able to privately find and communicate with other players in your area. You will also be able to post and reply to topics, vote in polls, and many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

New Downloads Section

I agree with the sentiment to focus on the members' creativity, rather than serve them common things they feel like they're quite proficient at finding on the net if they want it. Fan resources and materials, creations, settings, sharable uploads and downloads, rules adaptations, etc. is something I've always wanted to find since RPGArchive/RPGLife went belly up for all practical purposes, years back.

I've started putting together a section for this, which you can take a look in the new Downloads seciton. I'd really appreciate any feedback you or anyone else has on the categories. Also, bring up the interface to upload a resource in any of the categories and take a look at the systems and resource types available and let me know if you have any other ideas for categorization.

This looks like a terrific start! To me, I think if this is able to be maintained, this could make PPG a more consistently frequented stop and resource, but I'm sorta biased on the whole community-source idea.

I'm running at 1280xwhatever and all the page elements seem proportional to me.
The search box does superimpose over other menubar link, but it does that no matter what, if you half-screen the website, so I don't know what help there is for that.

On topic:
1) Would it be possible or useful to add an image insert into the textbox control, so you could add a picture or set of maps, etc., even if you just link to them, rather than upload them? Like for my submission, Worldshammer, I made a full PDF with a cover and everything and it would be neat (but obviously not vital) to have the site display the associated image.

2) The submission form currently requires an upload to post. Would it be posible to simply add a URL as an optional or secondary resource? My PDF is already hosted at Savage Heroes, so doesn't currently need to be uploaded here or take up PPG's bandwidth (I know my file is small but when you get lots of such uploads, I know it can run into money).

I already linked to my PDF on Savage Heroes in the text box, and really just wanted to submit that without uploading a file - since that is already possible, as I already accomplished my intent with this link, without even uploading a file, is there a way to make the upload optional, like maybe it would give you a messagebox warning that you didn't upload a file, are you sure you want to submit the form?

4) It would be useful to display what file types may be uploaded and maybe a minimum and maximum size. If possible, txt, rtf, pdf and zips (rars etc) and common image files are very important, with the possible addition of the various office extensions (doc, odt, etc)

5) I might suggest a link to submit a new genre or system, so people that want to upload their new weapons list for Creeks and Crawdads can add their "vote" for that system to a list that someone could go through once a year, counting up and consolidating the somewhat close spellings (besm, BESM, Big Eyes, B.E.S.M.) and add the top 10 suggested options or something.

6) Enabling comments and ratings, if possible, could be useful, to allow downloaders to post comments or questions and maybe get clarifications from uploaders, though it is possible not enough uploaders would bother to provide such free service.

7) Versions might be useful, like you could maintain your possibly popular specific resource page but upload your much improved version 2.5 of your resource - I don't know if you'd replace the old one or make it available too or what. Or I guess the uploader could just add a second (third etc) resource or delete their old submission entirely (though some might get linked to a lot offsite and provide good traffic to PPG) and make a whole new submission for their new version.

8) Related to the other issues, the main problem here I can see is the potential for exploits and spam and of course uploading or linking to copyrighted works.

You could easily link to a full not-free PDF, spam or illegal site or just do blatant self-promotion, both with the rich text box as well as the file upload, which could all be anything from trojans and viruses, to warez and torrents and ads and links to porn (legitimate or "shock" varieties). As much as Captchas are a pain, as well as not stupendously successful, they or something like them still probably need added, if for no other reason than to deter any new waves of bot registration and resource posting, which is what I think killed the usefulness of RPGLife's resource upload feature.

All in all, this looks awesome, and is very simple and straight-forward, and I know I've seen enough such examples of solid community interaction and sharing to know there is at least a consistent, if not overwhelming "market" for this type of resource or feature, and if it were done right and promoted, I think PPG could gain a lot of notoriety from having a stable and useful interface like this for players and GMs.

Works. The Downloads section looks like a fantastic addition to Pen and Paper Games! Thanks so much for being so responsive to member suggestions - I wish more members would speak up and offer some ideas or at least some way-to-gos - or money, am I right? I'm here all week, folks!

Just an update. I turned my attention towards getting a new chat software setup for a while, which was involved to get things like dice rollers working, etc. I'm wrapping that up, so I'll be coming back around to the Downloads section soon.

I just uploaded a new thing, a miniatures equivalents table, and had to make it a PDF since images can only be added after the fact and I couldn't NOT add a file, which I know you already are aware of.

As this is a "metagame" issue, being miniature sizes, there was no proper category, so I put it in "mechanics/rules". I have collected and made my own resources of things like this - wind speeds, movement speeds, that don't really relate to any specific genre and are more generic physics or facts of everyday life, that might do to have their own "references" category, but the rules/mechanics probably works fine for now.

When I was submitting my stuff, the "system" only gave me d20 and about four or five other options, when I knew you had compiled a very large list of game systems, including Savage Worlds, which isn't in this abbreviated list. However, after I submitted an image as the file and it errored, telling me I could only upload zip or pdf, the system and type sections blanked, but now in the systems pulldown, the larger list of game systems were available.

I would like to reiterate at least considering not having to upload a file, but instead linking to a file or allowing the later image upload as the "content" of the post.

When I was submitting my stuff, the "system" only gave me d20 and about four or five other options, when I knew you had compiled a very large list of game systems, including Savage Worlds, which isn't in this abbreviated list. However, after I submitted an image as the file and it errored, telling me I could only upload zip or pdf, the system and type sections blanked, but now in the systems pulldown, the larger list of game systems were available.

You only received the "generic" systems because you had not gone into a specific section to upload your file. If you were in the Fantasy section, you'd get the fantasy options + generic.

I would like to reiterate at least considering not having to upload a file, but instead linking to a file or allowing the later image upload as the "content" of the post.

It is already possible to reference a URL, but I may have only enabled that for special guests and community supporters. I'll have to check later.